A New Optimal AVR Parameter Tuning Method

using On-line Performance Indices of

Frequency-domain
Joong-Moon Kim, Studenl Member, IEEE, Seung-11 Moon, Member, IEEE and Jonghoon Lee,

Student Member, IEEE

tuning for voltage control of power

system generators has generally been done with the off-line
open-circuit model of the synchronous generator. When the
generator
is connected on-line and operating
at rated load
conditions, the AVR operates in an entirely different environment
from the open-circuit conditions. This paper describes a new
method for AVR parameter tuning for on-line conditions using
parameter
optimization
technique
with frequency
response
characteristics of linearized on-line system model.
As the proposed method uses the online system model, the
tuned parameters
show the optimal behavior in the on-line
operating conditions. Furthermore,
as this method considers the
performance
indices that are needed for stable operation as
constraints, the performance of the tuned parameter guarantees
the stable operation.
Abstract--

AVR parameter

Parameter
Tuning,
Index
Terms-- Excitation
System,
Automatic
Voltage
Regulators,
Parameter
Optimization,
Linearized model

I. INTRODUCTION

ONTROL parameters of the excitation system greatly

affect the power system dynamic response and stability.
For the proper tuning of these parameters, analytical method
using frequency response techniques on the open-loop
excitation control system with generator off-line have been
widely utilized [1,2]. Since the AVR operates in an entirely
different control environment when the generator operated in
on-line condition, the parameter set that is tuned by using the
off-line model may not give the optimal performances in online conditions.
A frequency domain technique, using on-line generator
model obtained from the detailed transient stability program,
for the parameter tuning of AVR has been introduced [3].
Although this method intends to improve the terminal voltage
response with on-line operating condition, it can not yield the
parameter set for optimal performance at various operating
conditions. Many researches to improve the performance of
Joong-MoonKimk with
dong, Seoul
Seung-11
dong, Seoul
Jonghoon
dong, Seoul

Seoul National Uni versity, Kwanak-gu, Shinlim151-742, South Korea (e-mail: blues kilm@koreamail. conl).
Moon is with Seoul National University, Kwanak-gu, Shinlim151-742, South Korea (e-mail: simoon@plaza,snu.a c.kr).
Lee is with Seoul National University, Kwanak-gu, Shinlim151-742, South Korea (e-mail: ljoho@powerlab. snu.ac.kr).

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voltage control characteristics of the AVR using additional

compensators such as pole-zero canceling compensator and
G.T.F.Regenerator Transfer Function Regulator) have been
performed [3,4,5]. In spite of the improvements, these
methods do not easily applicable to the already installed
conventional AVRS.
In this paper, a new AVR parameter tuning method using
parameter optimization technique with the frequency response
of linearized on-line power system model is presented.
Parameter optimization technique inherently reduces the
efforts to performing tradeoffs between the performance
improvements and the stability. In addition, since this method
needs no additional compensator, the optimal parameters of
conventional AVRS are readily obtained at the various
operating conditions. Relationships between the performance
indices of the frequency domain and the on-line time domain
performance are described. Object functions to acquire the
parameter set that produce the fast and stable responses at
various operating conditions are also proposed, Case studies
performed with two basic types of exciter models at different
loading conditions, to verify the performance of proposed
tuning method.
II. LINEARIZEDON-LINESYSTEMMODEL
Fig. 1, shows the overall system configuration that is used
for parameter tuning.

oG

1---7;
+

Large ~
system ~
L---------J

Fig. 1. Overall system configuration

Based on Parks equations, generator model which
and two q-axis
one d-axis amortisseur
incorporates
amortisseurs is used in the system model. The system dynamic
equations including swing, generator, transmission line and

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By combining the above equation (3) with (l)-(2),

complete system dynamic equation is obtained.

load are linearized and arranged in state-space form [6].

Ah

A(z

r
AS

al2 *13
210000
A ~ fd _ 31 32 a33
@id
a41 42 43
A@,q
5I 52 a53
A @2q _a61 62 a63

14 15 a16

al I

t=

5A6

34
a44
a54
64

35
45
55
a65

bO
11
00

A;

A I#fd
ATM
36
0 32
AY,d
+
00
AEFD
46
[1
00
56 Av,q
a66_@2q
.0
0-

IV. RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEENTHECHARACTERISTICS
OFTHE
FREQUENCY-DOMAIN
ANDTHEON-LINEPERFORMANCES

(1)

When the generator is open-circuited, relative stability of a

excitation control system is measured in terms of the gain
margin and phase margin, and the crossover frequency Uc is

+ 62,A lq + K63A v2q (2)

6Avfd +61A ld

In the above equations, ATMrepresents the prime mover

torque variation and AEFDrepresents

the

the excitation voltage

variation due to AVR action. In this paper, the variation of

mechanical input torque ATMis neglected. Detailed equations
for the coefficients in the above equation are given in [6].
The complete state equations could be obtained by
compounding above state equation and state equation of
excitation system, which is discussed in the next section, and
could be converted into the transfer-function form @E,/ AVref)

indicative of the speed of the transient response of the system

[1]. When the synchronous machine is connected to the power
system, the system performances are greatly influenced by its
operating level and the parameters of the external system [8].
So in order to verify the relationships between the
characteristics of frequency-domain and on-line performance
with generator on-line condition, various case studies have
been performed with different type of excitation systems at
wide operating range. As an example, the relationships of both
characteristics with IEEE ST2A type exciter at three different
operating conditions are shown in Fig. 3. Generator and
exciter parameters and operating conditions used in this
example are given in Table. I.

to facilitate frequency-response analysis.

TABLE. L SYSTEM PARAMETERS

III.

LINEARIZED EXCITATION

Generator parameters

MODEL

,
na

this paper, IEEE ST2A excitation system is used to

verify the proposed tuning method. The block diagram of the
ST2A exc;at~on system is-shown in Fig. 2 [7].
In

v.

K,

v,

sK,

, .*
.

v,

ST,

v.

V.,.

I,.

11

1+ sT,

IN

&

o-

F,x .

5:;

0.05

1;;

0.;5

,,3.5

L,

L:,

L;

i,

L:

0.198

1.728

0.45

0.09

T.

T,

K,,

120.0

0.15

1.0

0.5

0.0

1.19

K,

K,

T,.

R.

x,

c!

0.158
0.158
0.158

0.673
0.673
0.673

7.2
23.1
41.6

0.15
0.3
0.5

A V,.

=
I

[ ~ETr

~J,

T, j

Linearized state-space form equation of this excitation

system is given in (3). For the purpose of linear analysis, the
product point on the main control path is changed by the gain
VB, which is calculated by operating condition.

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1.0
El =1.0
Q,
0.06
0.12
0.2

R& + jX& - thevenins equivalent impedance of

transmission system

This excitation system utilizes the rate feedback loop to

provide excitation control loop damping. Detailed description
of this excitation system model is described in [7].

A V,

L,

KE

where,

A&,.

0.0

TA

Case 1
Case 2
Case 3

F,. Fig. 2. IEEE ST2A RateFeedb ?ck type Excitation System

K,,

K,

f[I.]

2.5
0.5
Operating Conditions

1 + sT,

T
do

1.8
0.27
Exciter parameters

..

d - power angle of the generator

As

shown

in the Fig. 3-a, the crossover frequency OC is

still the indicative of the speed of the transient response, when

the generator is connected to the power system. It is clear that
the large crossover frequency is indicative of the fast rise time
at all operating conditions. In addition, as shown in the Fig. 3b, and Fig. 3-c, phase margin and gain margin are also the
measures of relative stability at the generator on-line
conditions. It should be noted that simultaneous optimization
of all performance indices is not possible. As shown in the Fig
3-c, high phase margin and high gain margin for the stable
operation are not compatible with large crossover frequency
for fast response.

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45

50

OIc
[rad/see]

55

60

65

70

Phase Margin[degree]
(b)

(a)

1,5

20

25
Q,

30

35

[rad/see]
(c)

Fig. 3. Relationships between the characteristics of frequency domain and time domain

Fast excitation response to terminal voltage variations is

required for improvement of transient stability [6]. For the fast
excitation response, the crossover frequency should be high.
Although the high crossover frequency makes the system
response fast, it leads to reduce the phase margin and gain
margin of the frequency response. Consequently, it recluces
the damping of system oscillations.
Therefore,
the
compromise between the fast excitation response and the welldamped response is needed for stable operations.
V. OBJECTFUNCTIONANDOPTIMIZATION
TECHNIQUE
In this paper, constrained optimizatic,n technique is used to
solve the compromise problem and Sequential Quachatic
Programming(SQP) method is used to solve the constrained
optimization problem [9, 10]. In this method, an approximation
is made of the Hessian of the Lagrangian function using a
quasi-Newton updating method and ~~QP sub-problem is
solved at each iteration. This is then used to generate a QP
sub-problem whose solution is used to form a search direction
for a line search procedure. Detailed description of the routine
is given in [9,10,1 1].
Object function and constraints that are used in the
proposed method is shown below (4).
Maximize (coC+ WXPM) of on-line system model (4-1)
Subject to

where,

P.M of off-line system model 2 40 (4-2)

G.M of off-line system model >6 dB (4-3)
P.M of on-line system model > 65 (4-4)
- the weighting value of the phase margin

High crossover frequency for fast response can be

inherently obtained from this object ftmction because of the
nature of optimization technique. To solve the comprc)mise
problem between fast response and stable response, phase
margin with proper weighting value is also included in the
object function. To guarantee the stable operation of obtained
parameter set, at the generator off-line commissioning phase,
minimum phase margin and gain margin of the off-line model

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are considered as constraints (4-2) and (4-3) [1]. In addition,

to guarantee the stable operation at the generator on-line
condition, the minimum phase margin of the on-line model is
also considered as constraints. From the various case studies,
65 of phase margin of on-line system model guarantees the
well-damped stable operation. When the load-angle is so large,
the constraint (4-4) for the well-damped stable operation is not
satisfied any longer. Therefore, at these large load-angle
conditions, system response shows so oscillatory response
because of the lack of damping torque [6,8]. An effective way
to solve this problem is to provide a power system stabilizer.
Both phase margin and gain margin can be used in the
object function to solve the compromise problem. However,
gain margin has an adverse characteristic that is not applicable
to the optimization technique. Gain margin has the
characteristic of monotonously increase as increase of some
parameters, for example the excitation control system
stabilizer gain KF. So very large values of parameter sets, that
are not applicable in the real exciter, may be obtained when
the gain margin is considered in the object function, Therefore,
it is more reasonable to use the phase margin in the object
function.
The numerical value of phase margin is much higher than
the numerical value of the crossover frequency as shown in
Fig. 3. So the normalizing factor to reduce the numerical value
of phase margin to the reasonable range must be considered in
the object function. In addition, excitation control system
response shows more oscillatory response caused by lack of
damping torque as the load-angle is increased. Therefore, to
satisfy the stable operation (4-4), more value of phase margin
is needed as the load-angle is increased.
Unfortunately, the system response and performance
indices used in the object function are affected by many
factors, such as system configuration, load-angle and exciter
type, etc. Consequently, it is hard to determine the proper
weighting value analytically. Therefore, to determine the
suitable weighting value of phase margin for the different
operating conditions, various case studies have been
performed with different types of excitation system at wide

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TABLE, V, PERFORMANCElNLXCESOFBOTHPARAMETERSET( 6 = 13,7 )

operating range. Resulting suggested values of two basic type

of excitation systems are summarized in the table. II.

TABLE, II SOGGESTEDWEIGHTINGVALUES FORPROPERTONING

(Rate feedback)

0-200

0.1-0.2

II

0-500

0.1-0.2

20-50

0,2- 0.3

II 50-60

0.2- 0.3

50-60

0.3- 0.5

parameter

reposed
Method

K, = 0.056

malytical
Method

K, = 0.067

Over
shoot

Rise
Time

8.7

0.71

0/0

LOa-@7ssF

Weighting value

Load-angle

Tuning
Method

Settling
Time (Syo)

2.9

see]

8.9

0.79

%0

[see]

[see]

3.1
(see]

1.035

II 600-65~J
1.030

1.025

VI.

CASE STUDY

1.020

The case study with ST2A exciter with two different

operating conditions has been performed to verify the
performance of proposed tuning method. Block diagram of

2
Q

Ur

ST2A exciter is shown in Fig. 2. In thlls case, the gain A is

assumed unadjustable to provide the good steady state
performance and the excitation system stabilizer time con stant
T,

1.015
1,010
1.005

also found to be untunable at 1 sec. Generator

parameters and Exciter parameters usedl in this case study are
given in Table, L Table, HI and Table [V show the operating
conditions that are used in this case study.
is

1.000

In

time (see)

TABLE. III. OPERATINGCONDITION

Operating Conditions
E,
<
Q,
0,2

1.0

0.06

R,

XE

0.210

0.603

13.7

lY. OPER,ATINGCONDITION
Operating Conditions
x,
~
Q,
8
L

0.210
h

TABLE.

0.5

0.1

1.0

0.158

0.673

0.205-

.,

6
45.3
~

As shown in the Table. III and Table, IV, the load-angles of

each case are 13.70 and 45.30 respectively. Therefore, the
weighting values of the phase margin are chosen to 0.15 and
0.3 to prevent the excessive crossover frequency. The
parameter that is tuned by analytical method using off-line
KF = 0.067
[2]. To verify the performance
model is
improvement of parameter set that is tuned by proposed
method, time-domain simulation is performed on both
parameters using the reaI-time simulator [12]. Test signal,
which is used in the simulation, is the 3/0 step change of the
AVR reference value at 0.5 sec. Simulation results are given
in Table. V, Table. VI, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.

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0.200 ~

~~

o.195-

0.190 I
o

1 ;
--------- Analytical

.:
:
I
2

r
I

1
4

,.I
6

method

I
i3

time (see)

Fig.4. Simulationresults(3%stepchangein

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V,e, , d = 13.7 )

1
10

time and settling time than the response of the parameter that
is tuned by analytical method. They also show some more
oscillatory but well-damped response of electrical torque.

TABLE. V1. PERFORMANCEINDICESOF BOTHPAILAMETERSET( J = 45.3

VII. CONCLUSIONS
This paper presents an AVR parameter tuning method using
optimization technique with frequency responses of on-line
system model. The proposed tuning method find the optimal
parameters that maximize the object function in order to
improve the voltage response at on-line conditions and satisfy
the constraints in order to guarantee the stable operation of
both the generator on-line conditions and the generator offline conditions. So the efforts for performing tradeoffs
between fast response and stable operation are greatly reduced.
In addition, as the proposed method uses the on-line system
model, the parameters tuned by this method show more
optimal responses than tuned by traditional method using offline model at the operating condition.
Since this method needs no additional compensators, the
optimal parameter sets of conventional AVRS are readily
obtained at the various operating conditions.

m=]

VIII. REFERENCES

10

time (see)

[1]
[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]
[7]
[8]

[9]

10
[10]

time (see)

[11]
Fig.5. Simulation results (3% step change in V,C~, ~ = 45.3 )

[12]

As shown in the Table. V, Table. VI, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, the

parameters that are tuned by proposed method show more
optimal responses than the parameter that is tuned by
conventional analytical method. The system responses c)f the
tuned parameters increase the performance of the terminal
voltage response and maintain the well-damped performance
of the electrical torque. They show smaller overshoot, rise

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IEEE Guide for Identification, Testing, and Evaluation of the Dynamic

Performance ojExcitation Control Systems, IEEE Std. 421.2-1990.
Rodolfo J. Koessler, Techniques
for tuning excitation system
parameters, IEEE Trarw Energy Conversion, vol. 3, No. 4, pp.785-791,
December 1988.
K. Bollinger, R, Lalonde, Tuning Synchronous Generator Voltage
Regulators Using On-line Generator Models, IEEE Trans. Power
Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-96, No. 1, pp. 32-37, Jan/Feb 1977.
Raczkowski, C., Complex Root Compensator A New Concept For
Dynamic Stability hmprovernent, IEEE Trans. Power Apparatus and
Systems, Vol. PAS-93, No. 6, pp. 1842-1848, Nov/Dec 1974.
M. S. Ghazizadeh, F. M. Hughes, A Generator Transfer Function
Regulator For Improved Excitation Control, IEEE Trans. Power
$irrenrs, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 435-441, May 1998.
P, Kundur, Power System Stability and Control, New York: McGrawHill, 1994.
IEEE Recommended Practice fbr Excitation System Models for Power
System Stability Studies, IEEE Std. 421.5-1992.
deMello, F, P,, C, Concordia, Concepts of synchronous machine
stability as affected by excitation control, IEEE Trans. Power
Apparatus and Systems, Vol. PAS-88, No. 4, pp. 316-329, Apr. 1969.
M.J.D. Powell, A Fast Algorithm for Nonlinear
Constrained
optimization
Calculations, Numerical Analysis, ed. GA. Watson,
Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Springer Verlag, Vol. 630, 1978.
P, E. Gill, W. Murray, and M. H. Wright, Numerical Linear Algebra and
optimization, Vol. 1, Addison Wesley, 1991.
Matlab optimization toolbox users guide, Massachusetts: MathWorks,
1997.
Seung-111 Moon, Kook-Hun Kim, Jong-Bo Ahn, Seog-Joo Kim, JongMoo Lee, So-Hyung Kim, 11-Do Yoo, Jung-mun Kim, Development of
a new on-line Synchronous Generator Simulator using Personal
Computer for Excitation System Studies, IEEE Trans. Power Systems,
VO]. 13, No. 3, pp. 762-767, Aug. 1998.

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IX.

BIOGFL4PHIES,

Joong-Moon Kim (S2!000) was born in 1m-sil,

Korea in 1971. He received his B.S. and M.S. degree
in electrical engineerinj~ from Chonbuk National
University, Korea in 1996 and 1998. Currently, he is
a Ph.D. candidate of Electrical Engineering with
Seoul National University in Korea. His research
interests are control and modeling of the power
system dynamics

Sermg-11Moon (M) was born in Soon-chon, Korea,

in 1962. He received the B. S.E.E. degree from Seoul
National University, Korea in 1985 and the M. S.E.E.
and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University in
1989 and 1993, respectively. Currently, he is an
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering with
Seoul National University in Korea. His research
interests include analysis, control and modeling of
the power systems and the flexible AC transmission
systems,
Jonghoon Lee (S2001) was born in Kunsan, Korea
in 1976. He received the B.S. degree in Electrical
Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea
in 2000. He is the MS, candidate and his present
research interests are the voltage stability and the
control of the HVDC transmission systems.

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